First Step Support FAQ

How do PayPal orders get processed via your Web site?

2008-11-11T00:12:00.000-08:00

My Web site uses your shopping cart for orders, and PayPal for payments. How do the orders get processed by PayPal, and what do I have to do to check that they are processed correctly?

Answer: Read the answer here.

Reading mail from a new e-mail address

2008-06-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

If there's a new mailbox for you at our new host ICDHost, these instructions will show you how to read from that new mailbox.

This is easy - it's just a matter of creating an account in your e-mail program. We'll describe the process for Microsoft Outlook; it will be similar for other e-mail programs.

What you need to know

Before starting, you need to know:

The e-mail user name: This is usually the bit in front of the "@" in your e-mail address. For instance, if your e-mail address is joe.bloggs@example.com, the username is joe.bloggs.
The password
The incoming mail server: This is "mail." followed by the domain name - e.g. mail.example.com.

If you set up the mailbox yourself, you probably know these settings. If not, somebody should supply them to you.

You also need to know the outgoing mail server. This will be the same for all your e-mail accounts. In Outlook, to see your e-mail accounts, go to the Tools menu and choose "E-Mail Accounts". Then click "View or change existing accounts". This shows you all your existing accounts (there might be only one). Select any of them and click the "Change..." button. This displays a properties window for that account. Make a note of the outgoing mail server (click picture for larger version):

Test the settings in Webmail

This is an optional step that ensures the new mailbox is active, and that you've got the right user name and password.

First, send a test message to the e-mail address. We'll now check the new mailbox using your Web browser rather than your e-mail program. The Webmail address is "webmail." followed by your domain name - e.g. webmail.example.com. Go to this page in your Web browser and log in using the user name and password from above (click picture for larger version):

If you can't log in, it means either the user name or password is wrong, so try again, and if it still doesn't work, get the correct details from somebody who knows them.

If it does work, you should see the test message sitting there in the mailbox (click picture for larger version):

Keep it there and log out of Webmail. Now you're ready to change the settings in Outlook.

Changing the settings

In Outlook, go to the Tools menu and choose "E-Mail Accounts". Then click "Add a new e-mail account". Choose "POP3" and you'll get a blank page to fill in (click picture for larger version):

Fill in the form as follows:

Your Name: Your real name
E-mail Address: The e-mail address you'd like people to know
User Name, Password, Incoming Mail Server, Outgoing Mail Server: The settings you noted earlier

Here's an example of the entire page filled in (click picture for larger version):

Save the settings and you're done!

Testing

Do a "Send and Receive" in Outlook, and make sure that you receive the test e-mail you received earlier. Also send a new message from this account, to yourself, and make sure you receive it with the correct name and e-mail address.

Reading e-mail from a different mailbox

2008-06-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

If we moved your Web site across to our system, and you were previously reading e-mail from a mailbox on the old Web host, you'll have to change your e-mail settings in order to read it from the new Web host. You won't have to do this if the e-mail was just being forwarded to you at some other address, but you will have to do it if you were reading e-mail directly from that address.

Briefly, what's happening is that the e-mail address is the same, but the e-mail is being delivered to a different place. So you just have to change your e-mail program's settings so you start reading from the new mailbox.

This isn't difficult, but you must do it at the right time. If you do it too soon, before we move the Web site, you'll miss out on e-mail that's arriving in the old mailbox. So we recommend you wait until you're sure the new Web site is live, and then change the settings. Keep a note of the old settings so you can change back if necessary, just in case you want to check the old mailbox for any lingering e-mail that still got delivered there.

We'll describe the process for Microsoft Outlook; it will be similar for other e-mail programs.

What you need to know

Before starting, you need to know:

The e-mail user name: This is usually the bit in front of the "@" in your e-mail address. For instance, if your e-mail address is joe.bloggs@example.com, the username is joe.bloggs.
The password
The incoming mail server: This is "mail." followed by the domain name - e.g. mail.example.com.

If you set up the mailbox yourself, you probably know these settings. If not, somebody should supply them to you.

Test the settings in Webmail

This is an optional, but recommended, step. It ensures the new mailbox is active, and that you've got the right user name and password.

First, send a test message to your e-mail address, do a "Send and Receive" in Outlook, and ensure that it does not arrive in your normal inbox (If it does arrive, that means the new mailbox isn't live yet, so you'll have to wait until it is).

We'll now check the new mailbox using your Web browser rather than your e-mail program. The Webmail address is "webmail." followed by your domain name - e.g. webmail.example.com. Go to this page in your Web browser and log in using the user name and password from above (click picture for larger version):

If you can't log in, it means either the user name or password is wrong, so try again, and if it still doesn't work, get the correct details from somebody who knows them.

If it does work, you should see the test message sitting there in the mailbox (click picture for larger version):

Delete it and log out of Webmail. Now you're ready to change the settings in Outlook.

Changing the settings

In Outlook, to see your e-mail accounts, go to the Tools menu and choose "E-Mail Accounts". Then click "View or change existing accounts". This shows you all your existing accounts (there might be only one). Select the relevant account on the left-hand side and click the "Change..." button. This displays a properties window for that account.

On this page, you're going to change three things: User Name, Password and Incoming Mail Server (click picture for larger version):

Make a note of the current settings first (and if you don't know the password, ask somebody who does know).

You only need to change three things: User Name, Password and Incoming Mail Server. Set these to the settings above for the new mailbox, and save the settings.

Testing

To test this, send a test message to the new e-mail address, do a "Send and Receive" in Outlook, and make sure that you receive it. That completes the testing.

Can I use your plug-ins package on more than one Web site?

2008-01-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

Yes in principle, but there are some things to be aware of.

The licence is intended to be used on a single site, with one "look and feel". When we first set this up for you, we'll model the look and feel on one of your Web sites. When users interact with the system, they will see that look and feel. So if you're using it on a second site, they might be surprised or confused to see a different look and feel.

If the two sites look similar, you might think this isn't a problem, so you're willing to live with it. Alternatively, you could create a third look, which is either neutral (so it doesn't reflect either of the two sites) or combines the two other designs. That will reduce any potential confusion.

In any case, as long as you accept these limitations, you're welcome to use your licence on multiple sites.

Special Note For CourseBot

If you're using CourseBot for newsletters or courses, it does allow you to design as many templates as you like, and assign them to different courses. In that case, you can certainly have very different-looking templates for different courses.

However, there are two limitations:

All e-mail from your account comes from the same e-mail address, regardless of which course/newsletter it applies to.
The look and feel issue above still applies when people are subscribing/unsubscribing from courses.

Create a "how to" manual of what you know

2007-12-28T04:01:00.000-08:00

One of my clients wants to create products she can sell to her market. We settled on a "how to" manual in her area of expertise. She's got a lot of experience and expertise in that area, and other people would love to duplicate her success.

The package she's planning consists of:

A "How To" workbook with a step-by-step process for somebody else to duplicate one of her projects.
An audio CD, where I interview her about the process, the mistakes people make, and how they can avoid those mistakes.
A second audio CD of "success stories", where she interviews other people about how they have succeeded in similar projects.
A CD-ROM with Microsoft Word templates for the various forms, letters, checklists and other documents she uses.

This is an easy package to create, because it's based on her expertise. But it's worth a lot to her potential customers.

Can you do the same with your expertise? What do you know that other people would love to know? It might even be something you take for granted because it's so familiar to you!

What will influence on-line shoppers this Christmas?

2007-11-27T02:44:00.000-08:00

A new survey of U.S. consumers reveals some of the factors that will affect on-line buying decisions this Christmas.

In addition to having all the basics of an e-commerce site, some users will be swayed by user reviews, professional site design and alternative payment methods. And the results vary by age group, so it might make a difference if you're dealing with a younger target market.

Of course, these results don't necessarily translate elsewhere in the world or at other times of the year. But it's worth following these principles - they are good Web design practice anyway.

When I paste text into a Web page, the fonts go all strange

2007-09-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

If you're using the Easy Edit function on your Web site, be careful when pasting text from, say, a Microsoft Word document, a PDF file or even from another Web page. These programs often insert their own styles and formatting, which might make your Web page look odd.

The best way to avoid this is to prepare all your text without formatting, paste it into the Web page, and then do the formatting.

However, this isn't always feasible. If you have already pasted in the text, you have to manually remove the weird formatting. Go to the Details box, which shows all the HTML code for the page, like this:

Typically, these are the things to change:

Paragraph tags: If you see some code , remove everything between the P and the >. For instance, remove the bold code in this example:



This will end up as just this:



Span tags: Similarly, if you see some code , remove everything between the SPAN and the >. For instance, remove the bold code in this example:



This ends up like this:



Styles: If there are any remaining occurrences of style="...", remove them - e.g. the bold in here:



This will end up as:



Classes: Do the same for occurrences of class="...".

How do I stop people copying my course material?

2007-09-26T01:54:00.000-07:00

I've got an e-mail course with a password, that people pay for. How do I stop people registering for the course and then forwarding the material to all their friends?

Answer:

There's no practical way to prevent them from doing that, because they are just getting e-mail messages, which of course they can forward to others. You can password-protect PDF documents, but that is no help either, because people just pass on the password.

The best solution is to have some form of accreditation process. This can be as simple as sending them a certificate at the end of the course, which is proof that they've completed it. Only the person who buys the course gets the certificate in their name, of course. Even if others get the material, they don't get the formal qualification.

A client of mine works with financial planners, and does a similar thing. He has arranged with the Financial Planners Association of Australia for his course to be worth a certain number of continuing education points. The financial planners have to get a certain number of points every year to maintain their licence, so there's an incentive for them to buy his course, not just read somebody else's copy.

Another option is to put lots of promotional links in your course material, so that even if it does get passed around, it's doing some good for you by giving people a chance to visit your Web site.

How to specify colours in HTML

2007-09-22T20:38:00.001-07:00

This page shows the 216 standard colours that are safe for use on Web pages. To find out the code for any of the colours above, move the mouse over the colour. If this doesn't work, click here for another Web site that shows the same information.

To use this in changing the colour of text on a Web page, you use the code in an HTML tag like this:

Please read the instructions carefully.

The six-letter code (ff0000 in the example above) is the colour.

How do I stop the shopping cart from showing a currency converter?

2007-08-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

All my orders are from Australia, so I don't want to show a currency converter at all. It will only confuse people. How can I remove it?

Answer:

In the e-commerce settings on your administration page, for the Currency field, remove the last two fields - e.g. change

$,Australian Dollars,AUD,USD

to just

$,Australian Dollars

When in the day do CourseBot messages actually go out?

2007-08-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

Course units go out at the start of a day, just after midnight Western Australian time (8 hours ahead of GMT; 9 in summer). So if you've got a course unit scheduled for, say, tomorrow, it will go out tonight when the clock ticks over.

This is important if you're scheduling a unit to go out "later tonight". Don't schedule it for today's date, because that will already have passed. Schedule it for tomorrow.

Note: If you've got a unit scheduled for "0 days" (i.e. a welcome message), none of this applies. The unit goes out immediately when somebody subscribes to the course.

Should I get a domain name with dashes in it?

2007-08-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

What is your view on using dashes (-) in blogs and/or Web site domain names? Does this make it more difficult for people or harder for people using search engines?

Answer:

It does make it slightly harder for people to use, but if your preferred domain name is not available, it's OK to get the one with the dashes. There has been some speculation that dashes in domain names actually HELP the search engines, because they can see the words clearly as a separate word.

There's an excellent article here describing the pros and cons of hyphenated domain names.

How do I take orders from my Web site?

2007-08-03T22:28:00.000-07:00

How do I set up the automatic machinery at the back of my site to send out an e-book? Do I need a gateway? Or is there some simple way my ecart can send it out?

Answer:

It depends what cart you're using. Does yours allow you to customise the "thank you" page after somebody buys a particular product? If so, you can add a link to the e-book on the thank-you page for that product.

Alternatively, does it allow you to customise the e-mail message that goes out to acknowledge the sale? Again, if it does, then you can do it the same way.

Some shopping carts do allow this; others don't. Clickbank.com, for example, does allow you to customise the thank-you page. So does ours.

But many of them don't.

What is the best way to position a new product?

2007-08-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

What is the best way to position a new product on your website so that it draws attention, doesn't get lost in the other information and helps drive sales?

Answer:

It depends on how you're going to be driving traffic to the site.

If you're just relying on the people who already visit your Web site anyway, and are hoping to convert some of them into customers, then position your new product prominently on the home page, so that it stands out from everything else. Ideally, remove as many other distractions as possible (including other product promotions).

On the other hand, if you're promoting this more strategically, create a separate page for the new product, with its own sales letter promoting its benefits and features. Eliminate any other distractions - including menu buttons and other links away from the page. And promote it to your existing customers first - through your e-mail newsletter, your client database, a special mail-out to clients, etc.

Find out more about creating products.

Do I go for physical CD/DVD's or have them all available on-line?

2007-08-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

Answer:

Both! Some people prefer the physical products, and there's a certain feeling of quality to have something you can touch and feel. Others prefer the convenience of having them on-line. If you're going to create the physical CDs, it's then an easy matter to make them available on-line.

If you'd rather not do both versions, survey your potential customers and find out their preference.

Find out more about creating products.

How do I create and ship products?

2007-08-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

Distribution of physical products: Where do we get them created, and is it better to drop ship or ship it yourself?

Answer:

There are a number of places that create products for you - see GihanToldMe.com for my preferred suppliers.

When you start, be conservative and create products in small quantities, even though it might cost more per item. You might find that you've misjudged the market, and you don't want to be in the position where you have to throw away most of your products!

For a similar reason, you can probably start by doing your own shipping, and switch to drop-shipping if your products really take off.

Find out more about.

Be careful who you ask for advice!

2007-08-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

I started out with simple button names for my Web site menu, but some colleagues suggested that I should find some 'sexier' selling words. What should I use?

Answer:

Use clear, simple and obvious button names on your menu. If you really must use the sexier names, use them on the pages after they click the buttons.

It's OK to get advice from colleagues, friends and family, but remember that they are not your target market. So they will often give you sincere, well-meaning and BAD advice! So take that advice, but treat it with a grain of salt.

To be blunt, it really doesn't matter what they say. The best feedback you get is feedback from real paying customers.

What do you think about the risks of offering a payment scheme?

2007-08-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

What do you think about the risks of offering a payment scheme? It would generate more sales but be open to abuse from non payers (after I take the first payment).

Answer:

As a general rule, my attitude towards this sort of abuse is that you're better off helping the honest folks than worrying about the cheats.

After all, if you take ANY credit card order on-line, and the customer later disputes the transaction, the money will come out of your pocket. So even one-off payments are open to abuse.

So yes, I think a payment scheme is a good idea. Everybody I know who has offered a payment scheme and talked about it has reported positive results.

That said, I guess some payment schemes are better than others. If, for example, the customer authorises you to deduct instalments regularly from their credit card, that's ideal because it doesn't require their involvement. On the other hand, if you had to invoice them every month, there's more risk of it going wrong (even just due to laziness or incompetence, not dishonesty, on the customer's part).

How do I take payments on my Web site?

2007-08-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

How do I set up payment facilities for products that I want to sell on-line?

Answer:

This is a very general question, so I can only give a broad answer. There are a number of payment facilities available, and the exact system for you will depend on your requirements. For example, if you're selling electronic products in U.S. dollars, Clickbank might suffice.

As part of our Web site package, we offer a sophisticated payment system that includes a shopping cart, secure order forms, affiliate program and tax invoices.

Do bonuses work?

2007-08-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

I now have two ebooks. My first thought was to offer a special bonus to anyone who purchased the book, say, within the first two months – as an incentive. I was talked out of it – ‘why give away something for free?’. I then thought ‘what if I offer the two books at a slightly reduced price’? Again, I was talked out it, this time
citing it as being unfair to those who had already purchased the first book.

I’m in two minds about bonuses. Do buyers ever get cross about missing out on bonuses because they purchased at the wrong time?

I would love to boost my sales, but I also don’t want to lose customers because they’ve missed out because either they’ve already purchased the first book, or the bonus wasn’t applicable at the time.

Answer:

You do ask some very good questions, and even the fact that you're asking them puts you ahead of most other people I know.

You asked whether buyers ever get cross about missing out on bonuses. Yes, I think this does happen, but not often. After all, if you go into a shop in February, you don't expect to buy at those post-Christmas sale prices.

My policy has always been to honour the bonus if it's only a day or two after the deadline, but not after that. I think people are OK with that, as long as you give them a good reason for offering the bonus - e.g. it's a special Christmas offer, or a
small publishing run (but that doesn't work with e-books!), a personal goal that you've set yourself, or even just to say that it's a marketing experiment you're conducting for a limited time.

You do have to be careful not to upset your existing customers. My policy is always to make sure that anything I offer is AT LEAST AS GOOD OR BETTER for past customers than for new customers. So, in your example, you could definitely offer the two books as a bundle, as long as past customers could buy the second book by itself at a reduced price. Or they buy the second book at full price but get a $500 phone coaching session with you. Or whatever.

Overall, I'm in favour of bonuses. Yes, you're giving something away free, but it can lead to an increase in sales. The only real way to find out is to test it.

A bonus is almost always better for you than a discount. For example, if you give a $10 bonus report to people who buy both books together, that report won't cost you much (or nothing at all, if you send it electronically). But if you drop the price by $10, that's $10 in cold, hard cash that you now have to make up elsewhere. On the other hand, some people ARE price-sensitive, so again you have to test both options to find out what works best for you.

Clickbank vs PayPal

2007-07-31T22:15:00.000-07:00

Just writing to thank you for sending the "Write Profitable E-books" set. It has answered many questions and stimulated many ideas. I was interested to hear your suggestion of Clickbank as a means of providing payment facilities to my website. This was a question I had been wondering about and yet to research fully, however someone had mentioned PayPal as a possibility to me. Do you have any comments on either, given your experience, and any recommendations on why one might be more advantageous than another.

Answer:

Both are good options.

In my opinion, Clickbank is easier to set up, and it has an affiliate program built in (so other people can sell your e-books). It takes care of the entire transaction, including the e-book download, handling any refunds, and paying all affiliates.

PayPal is now very good. It now works in Australian dollars and no longer requires customers to be PayPal members in order to pay. These were two disadvantages in the past, which they have now solved. Its commission rate is lower than Clickbank's, which could be another factor. On the down side (compared to Clickbank), it doesn't have an affiliate program, it's not so easy to do e-book downloads, and you have to manage refunds yourself. But if you're considering PayPal, also look into Payloadz, which is a cheap PayPal add-on that manages some of these issues for you.

I do have my own e-commerce facility, but I also use Clickbank for the e-books I'm selling to the U.S. market (because it takes orders in U.S. dollars).

Should you pay money for viewing a Web site?

2007-07-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

Actually I'd like to know how these people get to rip off others by charging money for viewing their website ... and im not talking about charging on porn websites ... simple websites ... how do they do it? and is it legal? i shouldnt have to pay extra money for viewing a simple website...

Answer:

This is a good question. Although I disagree with your point of view, I'm glad you have raised this issue.

If you're talking about a government Web site, then yes, you could argue that your taxes are already paying for the site and you shouldn't have to pay extra. But in other cases, why shouldn't the Web site owner charge a fee?

The fact is that information does have value. If there's a market willing to pay money for it, and it isn't readily available elsewhere, then it can have a price. For example, I teach people how to write and sell electronic books, which have no printing cost, no design costs and low distribution costs. Yet they can command a higher price than a printed book. Why? Because somebody is willing to pay money for that information, and they believe it's a worthwhile expense.

My presentation doesn't translate into products

2007-07-31T21:21:00.000-07:00

How do I turn seminar material that is primarily experiential (the participants have an 'Aha!' breakthrough as a result of the training) and turn that into an information product?

Answer:

Give them a different experience.

This is also true of many high-energy keynote speakers whose presentation is as much a performance experience as an educational experience. This usually doesn't translate directly into a product. It's hard to generate the same experience in an audio or video recording.

Instead, your products could be based on the core material you present rather than the training itself. For example, Matt Church has created a high-energy keynote presentation "Fix How You Feel". But his products (books and CD) are based on the content behind the keynote, not the content of the keynote.

Get into the product creation mind-set

2007-07-31T21:19:00.000-07:00

How do I get in the right mindset to do it? How do I organize a good recorder, video recorder, audio recordings, support, etc.?

Answer:

You're making your life too hard. Start with something simple, like audio recording of an existing presentation. Even if you do it on a plain old cassette recorder, that's fine! Get the presentation transcribed, and you'll have 80% of the work done for writing articles, newsletters, a special report or maybe even a book.

You don't have to be different to add value

2007-07-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

How do I create something that is different from all the other products on the same topic?

Answer:

Well, my first question is ... Why? Why is it so important to be different?

If you're just doing it for the intellectual exercise of having something unique, fair enough. But otherwise, being different isn't all it's cracked up to be.

For example, do you go to your favourite restaurant because the food is different from all the other restaurants in the world? Do you shop at your local supermarket because they stock items that are different from any other supermarket? Do you go to your doctor because she gives different advice from every other doctor?

Now you might have answered "Yes" to some of those questions. But I bet you that the reasons are not due to the uniqueness of the product. In my case, my choices are due to the friendly staff at the restaurant, the convenience of the supermarket and the fact that he's my family doctor.

You do not have to be different from every other product on the market. What's more important is to offer real value to your customer/client. The definition of value will vary for different customers - it could be price, convenience, service, ease of use, loyalty, promptness, reliability, whatever. Find out what matters to your customers and clients, and focus on that, not on being different.